New on disc: Death Cab for Cutie's 'Plans'

Relax, fans -- the only evidence that Death Cab for Cutie signed a major-label deal is on the spine of the new album, where it reads "Atlantic" instead of "Barsuk."

Aside from that bit of small print, "Plans" comes off just as you'd expect a Death Cab album would: thoughtful, a little melancholy and impeccably melodic. The songs aren't stacked with the same lush layers as they were on 2003's "Transatlanticism," and unplugged instruments hold greater sway: moody piano on "Summer Skin," for example, and finger-picked acoustic guitar on "I Will Follow You Into the Dark." The latter is a love song, albeit a dark one: "Love of mine, someday you will die," singer Ben Gibbard begins, before assuring her he'll be close behind. Death pops up again on the heartbreaking "What Sarah Said," an attempt to find solace in the surreal environs of a hospital waiting room while a loved one dies.

The scope of "Plans" is less grandiose than that of "Transatlanticism," and the songs are subtler. But they hang together with stirring rainy-day cohesion: Gibbard's plaintive vocals search for meaning in the existential gloom while his always tasteful band holds the flashlight. Although fans feared for the band's music once Atlantic entered the picture, even a floundering major record company couldn't ruin these "Plans."